Bible Commentaries

The Final Hallelujah

The call to praise Jahve “with dance and with timbrel” in Psalm 149:3 is put forth here anew in Psalm 150:4, but with the introduction of all the instruments; and is addressed not merely to Israel, but to every individual soul.

The Synagogue reckons up thirteen divine attributes accordingto ex. Psalm 34:6. (שׁלשׁ עשׂרה מדּות), to which,according to an observation of Kimchi, correspond the thirteen הלּל of this Psalm. It is, however, more probable that in the mind of thepoet the tenfold halaluw encompassed by Hallelujah's issignificative; for ten is the number of rounding off, completeness,exclusiveness, and of the extreme of exhaustibleness. The local definitionsin Psalm 150:1 are related attributively to God, and designate that which isheavenly, belonging to the other world, as an object of praise. קדשוּ (the possible local meaning of which is proved by the קדשׁ and קדשׁ קדשׁים of the Tabernacle and of theTemple) is in this passage the heavenly היכל; and רקיע עזּו is the firmament spread out by God's omnipotence andtestifying of God's omnipotence (Psalm 68:35), not according to its front side,which is turned towards the earth, but according to the reverse or innerside, which is turned towards the celestial world, and which marks it offfrom the earthly world. The third and fourth (hălalu) give as the object of the praise that which is atthe same time the ground of the praise: the tokens of His גּבוּרה, i.e., of His all-subduing strength, and the plenitude of His greatness(גּדלו = גּדלו), i.e., His absolute, infinite greatness. The fifth and sixth (hălalu) bring into the concert in praise of God the ram'shorn, שׁופר, the name of which came to be improperly used asthe name also of the metallic חצצרה (vid., on Psalm 81:4), andthe two kinds of stringed instruments (vid., Psalm 33:2), viz., the nabla (i.e., theharp and lyre) and the kinnor (the cithern), the øáëôçand the êéèá(êéíõ). The seventh (hălalu) invites to the festive dance, of which thechief instrumental accompaniment is the תּף (Arabic (duff), Spanish adufe, derived from the Moorish) or tambourine. The eighth (hălalu) brings on the stringed instruments in their widest compass, מנּים (cf. Psalm 45:9) from מן, Syriac (menı̂n), and the shepherd's pipe, עגב (with the (Gimel) (raphe) = עוּגב); and the ninth and tenth, the two kinds of castanets (צלצלי, construct form of צלצלים, singular צלצל), viz., the smaller clear-sounding, and the larger deeper-toned, more noisy kinds (cf. κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον , 1 Corinthians 13:1), as צלצלי שׁמע (pausal form of שׁמע = שׁמע, like סתר in Deuteronomy 27:15, and frequently, from סתר = סתר) and צלצלי תרוּעה are, with Schlultens, Pfeifer, Burk, Köster, and others, to be distinguished.

The call to praise has thus far been addressed to persons not mentioned by name, but, as the names of instruments thus heaped up show, to Israel especially. It is now generalized to “the totality of breath,” i.e., all the beings who are endowed by God with the breath of lie (Heb.: נשׁמת חיּים), i.e., to all mankind.

With this full-toned Finale the Psalter closes. Having risen as it were by five steps, in this closing Psalm it hovers over the blissful summit of the end, where, as Gregory of Nyssa says, all creatures, after the disunion and disorder caused by sin have been removed, are harmoniously united for one choral dance ( εἰς μίαν χοροστασίαν ), and the chorus of mankind concerting with the angel chorus are become one cymbal of divine praise, and the final song of victory shall salute God, the triumphant Conqueror ( τῷ τροπαιούχῳ ), with shouts of joy. There is now no need for any special closing beracha. This whole closing Psalm is such. Nor is there any need even of an Amen (Psalm 106:48, cf. 1 Chronicles 16:36). The Hallelujah includes it within itself and exceeds it.